What do high school seniors all over the country have in common? They are all asked the same question.
What did you score on the SAT? Have you applied to schools yet? How about scholarships? Brings back a lot of panicked memories.
Picking the right school, or should I say getting into the right school.
I remember my mom repeatedly talking about how important the SATs were, as if that test would single handedly decide my future.
Although I didn't exactly understand everything that went along with the test, I quickly began to believe what she was saying.
But even with my mother's hearty fear instilled in me, I went into my first SAT test largely blind.
I had no idea how I was to be tested, or really even what I was to be tested on.
This may or may not have factored into my decision to take the test more than once.
I can't remember my final score, but I know it was significantly lower than 1500, which today is considered an average score out of 2400 total points.
There are three basic categories that affect the overall scoring factors: math, critical reading, and math.
The final count is actually much more complicated.
These are all things I wish I had known.
The first factor that plays into scoring the SAT is what the test writers refer to as the raw score.
Ultimately, the raw score will calculate how well a test taker answered the multiple choice questions.
And contrary to the advice of my older brother; which I didn't follow; it is not a good idea to go through the test, answering all the multiple choice questions at random.
In fact, the test writers have implemented a scoring factor that accounts for such a strategy.
Answer a multiple choice question correctly and you get one point.
Answer a question incorrectly and you receive zero points.
But every time you answer a multiple choice question wrong, it costs you an extra fourth of a point.
Thus, the SAT's strategy for foiling the random answer bandits who try to cut corners through the test by mixing in a smattering of A's with a few B's, C's, and D's here and there.
Now this is something my brother would have loved to know.
The second scoring factor that comes into play is the scaled score, which essentially casts all the scores from a given year in the same light, providing a common scale in the multiple choice categories.
The scaled score allows colleges to compare and contrast test scores of every student who takes the SAT, regardless of when and where they took the test.
But that is hardly the full picture.
The final factor in determining the SAT score is the essay portion; and this is particularly important as it can account for up to one third of the final score.
Once all of these things are factored in, you've got a complete SAT score.
Then all that's left to do is sit back, hope for something between a 1500 and 2400, and wait for those acceptance letters to start rolling in.